there were surpluses that bill clinton left us, but because george w. bush went in front of the microphone and said, "i have political capital and i'm going to cut everybody's taxes," he then put two wars on the credit card and that was the end of the surpluses. we went into deficits, deficits as far as the eye could see. deeper and deeper in debt. so you might ask, then, "senator boxer, why are you now supporting those tax cuts being renewed for 98% of the people?" and the answer is, it's a different time and a different place. we're getting out of a recession and we can make up the moneys we need to balance this budget by going just to the top rate, going to the people over $250,000. remember, this plan that we passed in july -- if we could go back to that chart -- that gives a tax break on the first $250,000 of income. and, in essence, giving everybody a tax break on that first $250,000. it's only after that that the taxes go back to clinton era. and because this is a different time and place, i support giving a tax break, continuing it for 98%, but